‘I have done no favours for the Guptas’

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says that a false narrative is being created that he helped the family to capture the state.

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba. Picture: @SAgovnews/Twitter

CAPE TOWN – Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says that he’s never done any favours for the Gupta family nor received any gratification from them.

Gigaba made a late night appearance before Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday night to again defend accusations that he acted improperly in granting citizenship to four family members of Gupta brother, Ajay.

Gigaba says that a false narrative is being created that he helped the family to capture the state.

“I at no stage assisted the Gupta family or any private interest group to capture the state.”

The minister says that he is being falsely accused of facilitating state capture.

He has, however, conceded that the department has for years failed to submit a list of naturalised citizens to Parliament as required by law.

But he says that this was not done even before he became the minister, and thus it cannot be viewed as an attempt to cover up the early naturalisation of Ajay Gupta’s wife, mother and two sons.

“I have done no favours for the Guptas, neither have I received any gratification from them.”